Kamikaze Moogle

Chapter Seven

Thorn didn't immediately open her eyes when she woke. The sound of chirping birds outside, which she usually found banal and irritating, today gave her a calm sense of peace, something she was greatly appreciative of. When she did allow her eyes to acknowledge the world as well, she saw a freshly minted sunbeam, throwing into sharp relief the swirling particles of dust that would have otherwise remained invisible in the air.

After contemplating this for a few seconds, Thorn realized she was breathing through her mouth. This was unusual; like most humans, Thorn generally breathed through her nose. When she tried this, she realized that her nose was completely blocked. You have got to be kidding me… Thorn sat up, trying again. When this failed, Thorn spoke to the air as a test.

"Fuck," she croaked. Yes, there was no doubt about it. The unthinkable had happened: Thorn had a cold. Clearing her throat made no difference; her voice was half gone. Awww maannn… She hadn't had a cold in months. What the fuck?

Well, I guess I did sit in a cold cave for five days… she thought bitterly. Boy, was THAT smart…

The door to the room she shared with Lily opened, revealing her best friend.

"Hey Chicken," she said, smiling to see Thorn awake. "How ya feelin'?" Thorn looked dismally up at her from where she sat in bed.

"I'b got a cold," Thorn croaked, snuffling.

"Aw, that sucks," Lily replied.

"Yeah id does," Thorn said, getting out of bed irritably. She had seen a battered box of tissues sitting unused on a shelf and intended to make use of this random resource. Lily watched as Thorn blew her nose heartily, tossing the tissue into the waste paper basket across the room. It took only a few times of Thorn coughing raggedly, trying to speak, then coughing again, that Lily placed her hands on her hips in an inordinately motherly fashion.

"Okay. You're sick. And it's not like you have much to do right now. So go back to bed already."

"Whatd ford?" Man, been a while since I've added Ds to the end of everything. "I can'td justd sitd around ind bed all day…"

"You can and you will, at least for now." Lily flicked Thorn's forehead, which truthfully wouldn't have done a whole lot to induce Thorn's submission had she not decided to offer it anyway. Sinking back into bed, Thorn cast Lily a baleful glare before settling down with the box of tissues clasped in her ungloved hands.

"Figures I get sick now…" she grumbled, "it's not enough that I'm the psycho homicidal bitchface of the story. I'm the congested psycho homicidal bitchface."

"Eh. You can be psycho homicidal if you really want," said Lily, shrugging, "but I think the title of bitchface supreme still goes to Rufus."

"Fine then." Thorn thrust her fist into the air. "I SHALL have the title of supreme bitchface, Rufus Shinra! YOU'LL SEE!" Exhausted from her efforts, Thorn collapsed against her pillows. Lily chuckled and left the room.

---

Cloud took a sip from a chipped mug of coffee handed to him by Tifa (which also came with a playful wink and witty remark on the reason as to why Cloud got the chipped one.) The dark roast steamed calming scent into his nose while also rolling across his tongue and engulfing him in the general aura of uber-coffee-fullness.

Cloud looked to his left at Vincent, who was sitting on the side of the table perpendicular to Cloud's. The scarlet-eyed man had accepted the coffee that Tifa had presented him with, but after taking the first required sip to show his appreciation hadn't touched it further.

The blonde swordsman looked up as the elder of the two adolescent visitors to Seventh Heaven, Lily, entered the room from the stairs.

"Hey," she said to the room at large, plopping down in a chair. She got little response, other then a slight raise of the head in acknowledgement from most of the men in the room, though she did get a pleasant "good morning" from Tifa. Yuffie was still asleep as of yet.

A look went from Cloud to Vincent, and Cloud looked over at Lily before saying, "We ought to talk to Thorn today. She's been sleeping a long time, and, well, there's things to be dealt with." Lily nodded, but looked apprehensive.

"Yeah, I dunno if you really wanna go in there right away. She's not feelin' too good and might want her space for a bit." The reaction to Lily's words from the others was immediate and, to Lily, shocking. Cloud's and Vincent's heads jerked in Lily's direction, Barrett and Cid cursed into their tea and coffee respectively, and Tifa looked worried.

"Do you mean—"

"Is she all right?"

"What's going—"

"—the fuck?"

In a flurry of movement everyone was on their feet, and no one was listening to Lily anymore, which was just as well, as the fifteen-year-old was watching in disbelief as everyone misinterpreted what she was saying the same way as opposed to voicing her protests any longer. Instead, she just followed, one eyebrow raised, as everyone thundered up the stairs toward the room Thorn and Lily shared.

Cloud barely paused to knock (and only did that as a result of the look Tifa was giving him) before opening the unlocked door. The sight that met AVALANCHE's eyes was not what they expected. Instead of a murderous fourteen-year-old Calamity vessel menace they saw a sickly teenager blowing her nose and surrounded by tissues. Thorn looked up with red-rimmed eyes.

"I'm not gonna go psycho and kill everyone, if that's whatd dyou're thinking… I'b justd sick."

Thorn watched Cloud give a mumbled apology, then AVALANCHE file out of the room, leaving only Lily in their wake. And Thorn didn't even bother to say anything, but just chucked one of her fingerless gloves in Lily's direction as hard as she could, because before Thorn even saw her she knew that tears were already streaming down Lily's cheeks from uncontrollable laughter.